Leuser Project

Referring to your article in The Jakarta Post of Nov. 26 regarding the dismissal of 200 staff members of the Leuser Management Unit, I hereby formally disown that the European Commission or the Delegation has any plan to close the Leuser Development Program before its closing date. I also wish to say that the European Commission is not dissatisfied with the performance of the project, which it closely monitors.

Earlier this year five ambassadors and four other representatives of embassies of European Union Member States visited the project. They had frank and open discussions with the project staff, representatives of central and local government, NGOs and activists. Despite the difficulties and shortcomings that any conservation project of this size would have encountered, the general conclusion of this visit was that the project was doing an impressing job.

We are fully aware that the situation in the Indonesian forestry sector is difficult. There is no reason to deny that illegal logging takes place inside the Leuser Development Program area, as this takes place in many if not all conservation areas in Indonesia. However to stop illegal logging, action is needed from not only the law enforcing agencies, but also from the forest industry, many of which remain dependable on illegally cut wood to stay in business.

I also wish to express my surprise that a newspaper as reputable as The Jakarta Post can print a story without double checking its information. It seems to me that checking the information before printing is one of the basic principles of good journalism. I would have expected that Mr. Apriadi Gunawan as a journalist working for your paper to adhere to such a basic code of conduct. To prevent such unnecessary mistakes happening again in the future, I suggest that you take the effort of contacting the Delegation of the European Commission here in Jakarta before printing any article on the Commission's development co-operation program in Indonesia.

SABATO DELLA MONICA

Ambassador

European Commission to Indonesia,

Singapore and Brunei Darussalam